Expectations for the nearly 60-year-old tank model that Ukraine received aid

Leopard 1, the nearly 60-year-old tank model that Kiev has just received, has many advantages such as ease of operation and large numbers, which can be suitable for the Ukrainian battlefield.

The Danish Ministry of Defense announced on September 8 that it had delivered 10 Leopard 1A5 tanks to Ukraine and would soon deliver 10 more. This is a tank model developed by Germany in the 1950s-1960s and upgraded in the 1980s. Germany is also said to have transferred 10 Leopard 1A5s to Ukraine last month.

Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands announced in February that Ukraine would receive 135 Leopard 1A5 tanks in the coming months. They also pledged to train Ukrainian troops to operate them, provide logistics, spare parts and ammunition, with the expectation that the Leopard 1s will significantly support Kiev's counter-offensive.

During a joint assault training session as part of a six-week training course in Germany, Ukrainian crews were ordered to fire the 105 mm main gun of a Leopard 1A5 tank at a target about 1.3 km away.

“Firing 17 shots and hitting 15 is a good result,” the German officer overseeing the training commented on the Ukrainian crew’s first salvo. “Now we have to work harder to reach this goal.”

Germany is one of the largest suppliers of military equipment to Ukraine. It has decided to transfer 18 Leopard 2A6s, a modern variant of the Leopard 2 series, to Ukraine for use in the counter-offensive campaign.

Leopard 1A5 tanks operated by Ukrainian crews at the Klietz training ground, Germany on August 17. Photo: Reuters

The bulk of Germany’s tank aid, however, is made up of more than 100 Leopard 1s. The tanks are so old that German instructors have had to rely on Dutch and Danish soldiers to help train Ukrainian crews. Germany retired the Leopard 1s in 2003, and the German veterans who know how to operate them were trained in the 1980s and 1990s, with the last training taking place in the early 2000s.

Despite being nearly 60 years old, some German experts and officials believe that the Leopard 1A5 can be a useful alternative to the Leopard 2A6, a much more expensive main battle tank with limited availability. Germany was forced to withdraw 18 Leopard 2A6s from its service to aid Ukraine, while the German army also needs this tank model.

Western experts believe that the Leopard 1A5 will be effective after being refurbished. Some believe that the Leopard 1A5 is still superior to Soviet-era main battle tanks such as the Russian T-72.

German Lieutenant General Andreas Marlow, who oversaw the training program for Ukrainian soldiers to operate the Leopard 1A5, said the tank has night vision goggles, a gun stabilization system and can move backwards at high speed. Not all "old" tanks in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have these features.

The Leopard 1A5 also has advantages such as easier crew control of the vehicle, and simpler maintenance and repair compared to the Leopard 2A6 model, General Marlow said. "Quantity also plays an important role," he said.

Leopard 1 tanks in the OIP warehouse on the outskirts of Tournai, Belgium on January 31. Photo: Guardian

Christian Molling, a military expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said that due to slow planning and lack of funding, the German military had no choice but to use the Leopard 1 when faced with a request for large numbers of tanks for Ukraine. "Those Leopard 1s are actually not a bad choice," he said.

The Leopard 1A5 is a modernized version of the main battle tank developed by luxury car maker Porsche. The tank focuses on mobility and firepower, as its designers believe that high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds will make heavily armored tanks obsolete.

With that philosophy, the Leopard 1 is only equipped with 10-70 mm thick cast steel armor, only slightly more than an armored vehicle, making it very vulnerable to anti-tank fire on the modern battlefield, especially suicide unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Germany upgraded its Leopard 1 tanks to the 1A5 standard in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as its military downsized after the end of the Cold War.

"Ukraine asked us to train the crews for no more than six weeks, and for obvious reasons. We needed to make the most of that training time," said General Marlow. This meant Ukrainian soldiers had to train six days a week, but General Marlow said "they hardly bothered about it."

Nguyen Tien (According to Business Insider )

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/ky-vong-voi-mau-xe-tang-gan-60-tuoi-ukraine-duoc-vien-tro-4649639.html